Joanne Robertson – Painting Stupid Girls (World Music)

Robertson is a Glasgow-based artist who performs songs with just guitar, voice and reverb. The mic is placed at a distance, so we can hear all the tasty ambience around these intimate tunes. It’s like that moment when you hear singing from down a long wooden hallway, and you realize your flatmate might be a genius. The forlorn feeling is overwhelming in this. It has elements of 60s UK folk and early ‘00s desolate USA lo-fi folk. If you want to stay in bed all day staring out the window, this is your jam. There are some previous releases on Feeding Tube records I need to hear now as well. (I am making a mental note to cover more Feeding Tube stuff, cuz it’s quite the cornucopia)

Sad Eyed Beatniks – Places of Interest (Paisley Shirt)

Sad Eyed Beatniks is Kevin from SF, and he’s been cranking out colorfully crude homemade tapes for awhile now. As the label mogul behind Paisley Shirt, he’s having a moment mid-apocalypse, bringing attention to rad Bay Area artists like HITS, Cindy, Flowertown, and RE Seraphin, all covered in past columns. On Places of Interest, Kevin has tamed the 4-track hiss and captured the eccentric pop sound I think he’s been aiming for in his own music. You can hear bits of Half-Japanese’s Charmed Life, Dead Milkmen’s Big Lizard In My Backyard, maybe Eat Skull’s III  in the wayward vocals and fried arrangements. There are field recording noise passages, full band tunes and solo acoustic riffing, all glued together with a tribute-to-San-Francisco concept I can personally stand behind.